E-Paper
With 90 buses away in Ayodhya, public transport in Lko hits a bump
Utpal Kumar, a member of the Dainik Yatri Association, a community of travellers who commute daily within city limits, said that earlier this month representatives of this group had approached the MD, requesting more buses on city routes to make travelling by public transport more convenient and comfortable for the citizens.
LUCKNOW: The Lucknow city bus fleet has been somewhat hit for a few weeks now, because ever since the grand consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, 90 electric buses have been diverted to the temple town to ferry devotees.
According to Lucknow City Transport Services Limited managing director R.K Tripathi, “Out of our regular bus fleet which has 248 vehicles , 90 electric vehicles have been sent to Ayodhya. We are now operating 158 buses in the city, electronic and CNG combined.” He said that the district administration of Ayodhya had informed that the buses would be returned to Lucknow soon but a final date was still awaited.
Lately, fewer buses are seen on city streets and most bus stops lie empty, even at office hours, in the afternoon or in the evening. However, Tripathi claimed that the commuters had not been facing any inconvenience as the frequency of bus trips had been increased. “Buses that were making 10 trips when the fleet was at full strength, are now making 12-15 trips a day to make up,” he said.
Utpal Kumar, a member of the Dainik Yatri Association, a community of travellers who commute daily within city limits, said that earlier this month representatives of this group had approached the MD, requesting more buses on city routes to make travelling by public transport more convenient and comfortable for the citizens.
“It has disrupted my schedule on at least three occasions so far,” shared Sushila Yadav, who works as domestic help. “I would take the 7 AM bus from Nishatganj and get off near Kamta. Normally the bus was never more than 10 minutes behind time, but in the past few weeks I had to wait for over 30 mins on one occasion and did not get a bus at all on another. I hailed an auto and had to pay Rs. 150. Moreover, I got into trouble at my place of work,” she complained.
Tripathi estimated that while the fleet was capable of transporting nearly 40-45,000 passengers on a single day, the capacity had now gone down to 25-30,000 daily. Currently there are two bus depots in the city for local transport buses - one in Gomti Nagar for CNG buses, and the other in Dubagga for CNG and electric buses, 90 of which are away in Ayodhya. For the past few weeks, and a couple more to come, 108 electric buses and 50 CNG buses will be making up for the gap left in the city by adding trips to their bus fleet.
Manoj Sharma, assistant regional manager Gomti Nagar depot, informed that the entire city bus fleet covered 24 routes across the city. “From our Gomti Nagar depot we cover three main routes and we have added a total of 35 trips for our buses to cover up for those that are away in Ayodhya,” he said.
While a date for the return of these buses to the fleet has not yet been confirmed, officials in Lucknow City Transport have said that the fleet will be getting a significant addition with new buses by the end of March or April, so as to ensure ease of travel for commuters by the time peak summer hits the city.
